In November of 1947, Roma Wines announced they were dropping their sponsorship of Suspense. Roma’s last episode was on November 20th, 1947.
As CBS began to sustain the show’s cost, they indicated they were no longer interested in offering Suspense to an alcohol brand. For the next five weeks Suspense shifted to Friday evenings live, coast-to-coast at 9:30PM eastern time.
December 26th, 1947 was the last of those Fridays. Director William Spier chose Ozzie and Harriet Nelson to star as a husband and wife driven to despair by a hateful invalid uncle. It was called “Too Little To Live On,” and written by Robert L. Richards, who also wrote “The House in Cypress Canyon.”
“Too Little To Live On” is a masterpiece in long-scene radio drama.
The next week, Suspense began a new hour-long format, hosted by Robert Montgomery. William Spier’s last date with the production was January 24th, 1948. He married June Havoc the next day.
The Nelsons vacated their Sunday at 6PM time slot to take over the Friday at 9:30 position Suspense occupied here. Although their CBS rating climbed to 13.4 that season, in the fall Ozzie and Harriet Nelson left for NBC.